


Covet

by AiniMinamino



Category: Fate/Grand Order, Mahabharata - Vyasa
Genre: Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29271243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AiniMinamino/pseuds/AiniMinamino
Summary: It was but an ephemeral dream.
Relationships: Arjuna | Archer/Karna | Lancer of Red
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Covet

The King of Anga had a dream, a dream delirious with images of a time long passed.

He dreamed of his adolescent days, the halcyon days of innocent childhood. He – merely the son of a retainer – was bestowed the chance to study together with the royalties, under the most masterful _guru_ of the kingdom. He dreamed of the Third prince of the Pandavas, a mere little boy with a face that was fresh as a lily yet shone brilliantly so in all of his glory.

He had not paid the kid much thought back then, just another blue-blood full of empty talk. He scoffed; this kid would barely last a few days! But to go back to frolicking, parties, and merriment. Yet, the young prince persevered, even as he struggled with the bow almost twice his size, even as those soft hands spared of hard work were cut, bled, and scarred. Even more so, he too did not expect the kid to surpass him – in archery, no less – and to replace him as the valedictorian, the most talented student, the favorite! The old _guru_ loved the kid more than his only child. 

He dreamed of the princess of Panchala, of those glittering eyes like the most exquisite of jewels, of a smile beautiful beyond belief. A pretty thing was she, but he again could not stop the bubbling heat of jealousy that gripped at his heart. Anger, at the thought of how she only flashed that smile towards the Third Pandava prince – now a full-fledged adult. The fair maiden slipped through his grasps, but through deception and deceit, he won! Nothing else mattered. Through his machinations, the First prince lost his kingdom, and with it, the princess – a most precious jewel. Yet, what was it for? Mayhap, for the thrill he felt when confronting the hatred glowering from the radiant eyes of the Third prince, a gaze that bored deep into his very soul. The heat was still there, but instead of scorching his throat and rendering him unable to breath, it settled in his stomach, pulsing at each and every thought of those eyes.

 _Surya_ forsook him.

Thinking back, perhaps it was for those phantasms that he was unmade. Insanity, obsession! But what of ambitions? What did he want? Was it to defeat the young prince and to reclaim his reputation as the greatest archer throughout _Bharat_? Or was it simply to put out the fire that always seems to blaze brightly in the prince’s eyes, so that those brilliant eyes could no longer look at anyone with such vigour but him? He covets, yet _Agni_ stoked the flames.

The king could not give himself a satisfactory answer, and the figure haunting him at the back of his mind could not offer one either.


End file.
